The bootsale (swap meet) season is almost over and sales of Halloween costumes have just started to pick up, it can only mean one thing – Christmas is coming. Now is the time for Molly to put away the radiator valves, room stats and copper pipe fixings (from B&Q) and get the Lego and Sindy dolls ready to go. It’s all change at HQ as the whole clan switches from buying mode into a selling frenzy.

This week’s bulletin includes an insight into defamation along with a sad tale of buyer ineptitude.

[For admin details for this newsletter, please scroll down to the end.]

1. EBAY 101 – DEFAMATION

I am really fed up with buyers leaving feedback suggesting that Molly’s cosmetics are fake. You can moan about the packing, delivery times or even that the wrong colour lipstick was sent but as I know the origin of every single item sold, the suggestion that any are iffy does wind me up.

Obviously any buyer leaving feedback to this effect is blocked and often I respond in a particular style, as you will see from some recent comments. However a recent negative pushed me too far and I spoke to eBay about it.

They were actually very helpful, yes you read that correctly, and walked me through the process to have feedback removed as defamatory. I had not realised that this was possible but filling in a form is all it took to have the comments removed. OK so scanning the form on to the computer took an age but that was due to the lack of a conveniently placed Elf. Three days later the comments have gone. The negative feedback remains but the point was made and I feel better.

2. ALL CHANGE FOR COMPLAINTS

The newly activated change to buyer complaints has come just in time to save my toy and DIY shop TRS status as I was dangerously close to the 2% defect limit. Now instead of open cases I am seeing ‘requests’ for this and that and my defect rate has dropped to 1.21.

The defect process was, and still is, a major gripe of bulletin readers but now at least a few general inquiries about dispatch, etc., are not defects and the buyer does not end up blocked.

eBay blurb:

“All returns requests, even for sellers who are not using eBay managed returns, can be initiated through My eBay and buyers will be asked to give the reason for return. Only those returns that are for item not as described will impact seller performance and will count as a defect.”

I am still getting the hang of the new format but it seems to be a winner. As ever your thoughts are most welcome, please send them to me at the usual address.

3. A COUPLE OF SPOOFS TO WATCH OUT FOR

On the subject of eBay defects and as a warning to us all this spoof is doing the rounds, please see below.

I have altered the links which of course would send you to a spoof webpage designed to relieve you of your password.

The second spoof that I bring to you for perusal popped into Molly’s box and although not the most clever it is worth noting and ignoring.

———————————————————————–

You’ve been on a super sales streak and since you’ve done so well, it’s time to recognize you for your
efforts. You are PowerSeller Silver!

Congratulations! joining the eBay Silver PowerSeller Program. Come and join us. When you join the PowerSeller program,
you’ll be able to receive more of the support you’ll need for continued success. So, why wait? Join now!

This one is obviously a fake as nobody sells enough at this time of year to even be considered for Powerseller status.

4. ASK MOLLY – WHAT ELSE COULD I HAVE DONE?

“Hi Molly,

I sold one of my Chutney Recipe books the other day – nothing unusual about that, I sell a fair few of these. A couple of days later the customer got in touch to say:

“Hi. I’ve just received my booklet of chutneys and how disappointed am I to see that the the first recipe I plan to make has a mistake. On page 15 it states in the method to peel and core apples, but there’s no apples listed in the ingredient. I now do not trust any of these recipes.”

Confused that I should have sold so many copies of this book without anyone ever noticing this before, or having not spotted it myself, I had a look at page 15 of the book and immediately see the problem. At the top of the page is the method of the recipe that started on page 14, then a new recipe starts – with a title and then list of ingredients, and the method for this recipe then goes on to page 16.

My customer has confused the method from the previous recipe with the list of ingredients that goes with the recipe that starts part-way down the page. I can see that you could possibly misunderstand this for a moment but it really wouldn’t be much of a confusion and anyone with a basic understanding of the way books work [M - or half a brain] and the order in which you read them and turn the pages would soon realise their mistake.

I sent them a reply, thanking them for raising their concerns with me and explaining what they had done. To this I receive the following reply:

“Thank you for your response,it makes sense now you explained,but at the time It didn’t.”

A couple of days later they decided to leave me negative feedback with the following explanation:

“Alittle confusing how there printed,but once you no that all is great.[sic]“

So firstly my customer feels the need to complain about something that isn’t actually a fault with the product I have supplied and then they happily accept my explanation but go on to leave negative feedback.

M: well of course you could have offered to reprint the book in a larger format so that every recipe has its own page, you really must try harder.

If you have a question about eBay or home working in general, please send it to me at the usual address. I will reply personally to every email I receive and, remember, there are FREE copies of my book available for the best questions, tips or stories.